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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187887">Technicolor</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uncannycory/pseuds/Uncannycory'>Uncannycory</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Gods &amp; Goddesses, Epilepsy, Headaches &amp; Migraines, M/M, Mild Blood, Priestesses, Priests</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-07-10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-29</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 08:14:16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Major Character Death</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,299</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25187887</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Uncannycory/pseuds/Uncannycory</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When he was little he suspected that when the priest's kid insisted they were friends, it would only cause trouble for him later. He and his father and his brother didn't believe in the gods, and yet only time would prove what the Gods had in store for him.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sollux Captor/Dave Strider, Sollux Captor/Dave Strider/Karkat Vantas, Sollux Captor/Karkat Vantas</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>22</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Life in Technicolor</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When he was little he suspected that when the priest's kid insisted they were friends, it would only cause trouble for him later. He and his father and his brother didn't <i>believe</i> in the gods, yet he began to find himself standing in the front hallway of the temple, waiting for Karkat to come out after finishing his scripture lessons to play.<br/>
And if he thought it would be a little weird he was right, standing between the four statues, he always felt as if someone was staring at him. Maybe someones. But gods weren't real. And they wouldn't become real just because he felt eyes on him in the empty front hall of the temple when he was six years old. Just because the whole town believed in fairy tales did not make them true.<br/>
Karkat always laughed at him when the subject was brought up. Which wasn't fair because it was always inevitably brought up by <i>him.</i> Because of <i>course</i> gods were real. Every forty years there was a ceremony. In that ceremony every thirteen year old kid was rounded up in the village in front of the (even larger) statues in the main hall of the temple and the town was given a sign as to who the head priests would be for the next forty years. Karkat's father had been chosen so many years ago, and as a result Karkat heard tell of how the sigil of the god of Wind and Shade, Joy and Laughter, Leadership and Friendship, the deity of Fathers and Sons, how it glowed on his chest. So of course Sollux heard tell of it too, retold through Karkat's rambling half shouting way.<br/>
But gods weren't real. It all sounded fake and made up and exaggerated. Even if he asked his dad and he hesitated, even if all the adults who were alive at the time said it was true. Sollux Captor didn't believe in gods.<br/>
Sollux had been ten when Karkat told him that they would both be thirteen in time for the next ceremony and wouldn't that be <i>exciting?</i> Sollux asked how old Karkat's dad was and was displeased when he double checked his math for him. They would be. He scowled at him and refused to talk to him, like it was his fault. He apologized later when he found Karkat crying behind the temple at one of the little altars set up for offerings. Karkat held his hand the rest of the day and kept asking if they were still friends. It was really annoying, but Sollux told him fuck yes of course they were as many times as Karkat needed to hear before they were both called away for dinner.<br/>
In the dark of winter on his thirteenth year orbiting around the sun, every thirteen year old in the village was brought to the temple. Karkat said that his father told him it normally went smoother but they had been expecting twelve for so long that the loss of one set off a whole bunch of little changes that had to be dealt with. Sollux didn't care. Aradia was supposed to be with him. Everyone knew who the next priests were mostly supposed to be. It seemed to travel through some families like fire burning through a family tree. It was why Karkats father was head even over the other three priests, bloodline old and preserved in fable. It's why Kanaya's mother had her wearing golden orange and yellow robes even when they were children. It's why Aradia burned too hot, bright and fast, her time running too short. Her mother was devastated. She had hardly been able to be convinced to come to the ceremony despite her obligations. She could hardly be torn away from the statue of her god, and if Sollux was religious he felt maybe he would be kneeling with her, demanding answers.<br/>
The only exception was the Goddess of Space and Science. Her line was never secure, her choice always unexpected. Always the question mark at the end of a sentence. No one seemed to know how to react to the second question mark there. Sollux looked through Tavros to where Aradia was supposed to be standing. She would be smiling cryptically right now. She loved unanswered questions.<br/>
Karkat leaned over, reaching behind Nepeta and catching Sollux's hand. He looked at him and he tried to give him a sad little smile. There were too many teeth in it to work, but Sollux knew what it meant.<br/>
The ceremony finally started. Sollux felt naked in front of so many people. He tried to look up and away but all he felt was four pairs of eyes looking down on him. It felt suffocating. Mr. Vantas stopped speaking and he remembered this was when something was supposed to happen. He tried not to crane his neck as he tried to see what was happening in the line of children next to him. There was a long pause of nothingness, and Sollux almost felt vindicated, when the statues of the God of Wind and Shade lit up at its chest, and light began pouring out of Karkats chest as well.<br/>
The next was quicker, the Goddess of Light and Rain lit up, and light seemed to pour off Kanaya's skin like she was the sun.<br/>
There was a long pause and then a small gasp. Sollux tried to find the difference, not caring as he craned his head to see, no matter how improper. The wrong statue lit up. The goddess of Space and Science lit up at her hands and next to him Nepeta's hands lit up too, her eyes wide with wonder.<br/>
Another long pause. Long enough that worried murmuring began from the crowd in front of them. The chosen had been pulled from the line already and placed in front of the statues of their gods, and there was an empty spot between Kanaya and Nepeta that seemed to gape and yawn like forever. A nervous ripple went through the children standing in line, the pressure bearing down on them.<br/>
And then it happened all at once and too fast. Sollux saw the statue light up, a strange halo of light around its head. The God of Heat and Time had chosen. Warmth bloomed in his head, he could hear collective gasps and his father's wail from somewhere far away.<br/>
The God had chosen him. It felt like he had a migraine and he couldn't see; everything was far too bright. Warm hands were leading him up steps and he could hear talking. The wailing hadn't stopped. Sollux wobbled, swayed. Heat crawled down his neck and into every crevice of him.<br/>
Sollux didn't believe in Gods. Sollux passed out on the steps, onto the feet of the statue before him.</p><p>Sollux woke up to murmuring in the room over. He could just make out the dim voices. Mr.Vantas he thinks. Someone else too, but definitely Mr.Vantas. He opened his eyes a little bit, squeezing them shut again at the light that bounced back from the bright marble walls. His head was killing him, throbbing, rolling through his brain like a fire eating through a forest.<br/>
He tried to latch onto any other sensation. The chilly, cool sweat sticky on his body. The slightly rough sheets underneath him. His chapped lips. The tears squeezed from his eyes and traveling down his hot cheeks. It was all too little and too much.<br/>
"Oh man, sorry." An unfamiliar voice. He didn't hear anyone come in. He didn't feel anyone there. Curtains closed to his left, the bright light on the outside of his eyelids dimmed. A hand on his forehead. "It's not supposed to happen like that."<br/>
Sollux opened one eye a crack, warily trying to find the stranger. No one was there.<br/>
"This is a hallucination. I am having an auditory hallucination due to my migraine and it will go away." His own voice sounded like knives to his head, like rubbing raw brain matter into gravel and broken glass. He closed his eyes again and there was a soft chuckle. It sounded like it was in his head and everywhere all at once. It didn't hurt.<br/>
"Nah, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."<br/>
The voice quieted as the door opened, two people coming in. Sollux rolled to his side and curled into a ball.<br/>
"Sollux..." Mr. Vantas's voice. He knew the other was definitely his father. He could hear the telltale signs of him chewing on his fingernails, and the wet gross sound made him want to gag. Gods, hallucinations <i>and</i> nausea with this migraine? He sure was on a winning streak today.<br/>
"Sollux we know you're awake, we heard you talking."<br/>
"Give him a break, he has a headache." His father sat on the edge of the bed, cool hands sliding to Sollux's temples to rub small, soothing circles.<br/>
" We need to finish his rites. He needs to join the others."<br/>
"Vantas, I'm telling you this isn't a good idea. Things don't go well for us where Gods are involved."<br/>
" And you've yet to elaborate."<br/>
" I-" Sollux felt his father shrug helplessly and motion to Sollux with his other hand. Like he didn't know, like he hadn't read it in the scraps of papers in the small box next to his father's bed when he was ten. His voice crackled pretty badly with emotion and pain his first attempt at speaking, and it was only the second attempt that rewarded the attention of the adults in the room.<br/>
"My mother was a Priestess of Doom in the city." He remembered the city just a little. Large buildings, large temples. His mother with dark hair and wild eyes like his own. One bright blue like the ocean in winter, one deep brown like the earth after rain.<br/>
The silence that followed spoke to shock. His father didn't know he knew. Mr. Vantas knew what it meant. Those of Doom did not make it to see their replacement chosen by the Gods. Not one.<br/>
A cool hand retracted from his temple. A pulling motion beside him as his father was pulled up from Sollux's bed side and out of the room. The door clicked shut behind them.<br/>
"Shit, I'm not planning on killing you." The voice filled his head again. It felt like it expanded and receded with every breath he took. It bumped up against all the painful parts in his brain but didnt push or hurt like other voices.<br/>
"Death is within your domain." Sollux muttered, his own knobby hands trying to make it to his temples to soothe like his father did. It never worked as well. "It's not like it's out of the picture."<br/>
"Shit, when did you actually learn something?" The voice sounded amused, " I thought you didn't believe in Gods. "<br/>
"Gods aren't real, no."<br/>
"Yet here I am."<br/>
"No. Here you aren't. You're another voice that my brains cooked up to torture me. Go scream with the voices of the damned."<br/>
"Open your eyes." The voice was coming from a direction now, hurting his brain. He didn't want to listen, to obey, but his curiosity won out and he rolled over resigned, cautiously opening one eye for the pain.<br/>
A body loomed over him, human in shape but so much more. His skin glowed, cracks spread across them where light shone brightly. It looked like something white hot was under the surface pulsing to escape. He wore robes light enough to not hide that light, just like the hood over his head and the dark glasses did not obscure the burn of his ruby red eyes. The longer he stared, the less human he looked, his God.<br/>
"If you don't perform the rites I can't keep you."<br/>
Sollux chewed his lips and continued to rub small circles in his temples. He was so tall compared to him. So broad. He looked like an adult to Sollux but he couldn't even be that. Thousands of years. Could you be called an adult if you were old enough to be time itself?<br/>
His god knelt next to him, his hand nervously moving Solluxs away and replacing his own to rub small circles at his temple. It felt unreal. The pain edged away.<br/>
"I couldn't blame you. I wouldn't force you. But it would be forty years before I could choose another. It would be forty years without a messenger."<br/>
Sollux let the conversation hang in the air. Far away he could hear Mr. Vantas's voice rumble and his father's much more nasally voice respond and you wondered at how they couldn't hear this. Hear him, his god. He reached forward and touched that cracked skin, it felt smooth as glass.<br/>
It took a moment to realize the pain in his head was almost nothing. He looked his god in the eyes again, before moving to stand up. Robes hung over the back of the chair. He recognized them. He remembered imagining Aradia in them after a day together in which she had tried on a much too large pair of her mother's robes.<br/>
He stripped off his clothes in front of his god then, slipping on loose, burgundy pants and pulling the drawstrings all the way into his much too skinny waist. Then came the long flowing robes themselves. They were silky to the touch. He knew he'd get a plainer set later, these were for ceremonies much like the ones he would be joining now. He slipped each arm into a sleeve then fumbled with the buttons and ties.<br/>
Hot glass hands came forward to help him.<br/>
He turned and looked at himself in the standing mirror next to the door. In the reflection he could see his glasses set carefully on the bed stand and turned, picking them up and putting them on before trying the mirror again. Over his shoulder his God was reflected back at him.<br/>
"This was supposed to be AA."<br/>
"I know."<br/>
"Why me?"<br/>
A long pause.<br/>
"I thought it would be funny."<br/>
Sollux was thirteen. Sollux lost one of the most important people in his life. Sollux was given a job he wasn't ready for. Didn't want. Sollux didn't believe in Gods.<br/>
Sollux walked out the door.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>All comments and critiques are appreciated.<br/>This has no set update schedule. Im almost done with chapter two, but i am also working on two other projects.</p><p>You can find me at <a href="https://uncannycory.tumblr.com/">uncannycory</a> on tumblr<br/></p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The main room was empty of spectators when he was led into it. The only people there were the others the Gods had chosen. They looked listless and bored. He couldn't imagine why, the god in his head wouldn't stop talking the minute Sollux didn't have his attention on someone else.<br/>
"It's because the others haven't said anything yet. Your friends won't say no. You might have. You might."<br/>
Sollux tilted his head. He hadn't tried thinking to speak to him because he didn't really want to know if he would ever have a private thought again. And though he had spoken and screamed at voices in his head before, he didn't know if Mr.Vantas would let him continue with the rites if he thought he was still having those sorts of problems.<br/>
He let himself be led back to the statue he fell in front of. Karkat rushed over to him, worried.<br/>
"Stop fussing KK, I'm fine. Maybe it's just what happens when a god chooses a nonbeliever." The look of worry is rushed from Karkats face and he scowls.<br/>
"Don't tell me after all that, you're still going to say crap like that."<br/>
"Gods aren't real."<br/>
"Then why even- you know? I don't care." He stomped back over to the statue of his god and crossed his arms in a huff. You wonder what that god looked like? Would the human shape strain to contain him too?<br/>
Nepeta was giggling and when he looked over, Kanaya in all her elegance was giving him an amused smile. He never quite understood why she smiled like that when he and Karkat bickered, but he gave them both an awkward half grin back. He didn't want this, but at least he liked the people he would be stuck with for the next however long he survived.<br/>
They all stood in front of their statues, waiting for something. Sollux remembered being told about what would happen, it was something about the old priest and priestesses passing on their mantle. They had to say something and they all would repeat it back and there would be drawing of blood and their gods would appear. But their mentors weren't there. Mr Vantas had walked out after leading him there, and three voices were talking, pleading behind the door Sollux had walked through.<br/>
And he had seen his God already. Because he was worried he'd say no. And Sollux thought he might have. He turned around to look up at his statue. The statue didn't really look like how he saw him. He looked more human. The voices through the door got louder. A gentle force tugged his hand toward the door.<br/>
Sollux obeyed. The faces of his three friends looked curiously at him, but did not move to follow. He walked toward the door, feeling like he was not the one steering his body. He opened it, taking a step in and closing it behind him.<br/>
Four adults were suddenly quiet, three were staring at him. Ms. Megido knelt on the floor, her body shaking between the others.<br/>
"It's time to go." Sollux's voice did not sound like his own. Well he thought it did, but it also sounded like more. A darker tone reflecting against him and filling the room. He stepped towards her, one step, then again. This time no guiding hand there. He pressed his small body against her, squirming into her arms crushed against her chest.<br/>
"I miss her too." Her chest heaved with broken sobs. She buried her face in his hair, her fists moving to ball into his robes. Wherever they touched each other light glowed. Pulsing between the cracks.<br/>
The other adults trickled out of the room slowly, leaving the door ajar.<br/>
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." Sollux whispered again and again, his voice mixing and colliding and bouncing with his gods. "I was there and I couldn't do anything. I'm sorry."<br/>
Sollux meant it. He had been there and watched it collapse. He had told her to stop again and again, heard her doomed voice screaming. He should have stopped her. Done something more than scold and worry. His thin body shuddered and when he opened his mouth his voice didn't come out at all.<br/>
"I tried, I really tried. But you have to help. I cant bring her back, I can't fix this. But I tried and you can't just leave him."<br/>
Ms. Megido looked at Sollux, but Sollux didn't think she was really looking at him. She released one hand from the back of his robes and touched his cheek gently. It was warm wherever skin met.<br/>
"You will be so small again..." her voice was so delicate. Sollux never heard an adult sound like that. "You can't hurt him, he's all I have left of her."<br/>
"I-he will be fine." Sollux was given room to speak, but his god still echoed against him. Sollux kind of wanted to be let go, but he let himself be held like a doll until Ms. Megido stood up, letting him go in the same movement.<br/>
"My apologies Sollux. Let us go." Her voice sounded hollow, but firm. He let her hold his hand and lead her back out into the center of the temple. Back to the feet of his god.<br/>
She let his hand go at the foot of their statue and joined the other adults on the steps in front of them. His friends were looking at him with concern on their faces in varying degrees, but the sound of Mr. Vantas voice drew all attention away from him much to his relief.<br/>
"Children, it is now time to perform your rites. It shall bind you to the gods who have chosen you."<br/>
Sollux knew this. They had all been told this. He couldn't understand the rapture in which the others stood, staring at Mr.Vantas. He tuned him out, instead opting to look up at the statue above him again. Mr.Vantas's voice sounded far away.<br/>
He had noted before, how different the statue looked from what he saw. It had the basics, the glasses, the way the hair was brushed to one side, the emotionless look on his face. It all seemed right there but something was wrong. Something he couldn't place.<br/>
Ms. Megido stepped forward, beckoning his hands into hers. He snapped his wandering focus to her, reaching out and complying. She was warm, and he wondered if he were to pull away again if light would shine from where the two were to be whole in this moment.<br/>
When she spoke it was a language he hardly recognized. The words tripped off her tongue and lips so easily, and Sollux wished for once in his short life that he had listened during prayer, had not shirked his lessons. She finished, and there was a pause where he knew he was supposed to repeat it back. He could hear the others reciting it so easily, the words bubbled and stuck in his throat. Panic roiled in his stomach, clawing up his chest. He searched her face desperately for the answer, her face was stoic, her eyes patient.<br/>
She squeezed his hands gently in hers.<br/>
He was shaking. When did he start shaking? Tears stung his eyes.<br/>
A voice filled his mind.<br/>
It started those familiar words again, stopped for a moment. Sollux was confused, but when his god repeated himself he understood, repeating the words out loud into the silence. His voice was shaking as bad as his thin body. He wished he had memorized this in his lessons, when he was supposed to, then he could have recited it with his friends. As it is, he could feel their eyes on him as he stumbled through the foriegn words of a lifelong promise. The farther he got the more things began to change.<br/>
The statue that Karkat stood in front of lit up first. It was hard for Sollux not to stop as he spoke, a gust of wind wiping around the group as his shaky voice continued slowly. A form began taking shape in front of Karkat, large like his own god was, glowing from his chest brightly.<br/>
Then the statue in front of Kanaya glowed. He actually stopped for a minute, gasping in pain at the bright light poured out of the figure appearing. A pulse of a migraine in the back of his head. The voice urged him on. Repeating the line once. Twice before Sollux managed to continue lisping it out. He was almost there.<br/>
Ms. Megido dropped his hands, taking a step back. The statue of his god glowed, that halo appearing and turning, grinding and humming. In front of him his god appeared again, stoic, cold. Hot like a fire.<br/>
His voice was out loud now. Sollux's face turned red as he repeated the words being spoken to him, wanting to squeeze his eyes shut as the voice bounced against the part of his brain that felt like fire. He didn't though, he had one last verse. He remembered how this one went, he had always been so excited because it meant class was ending. Now a different sort of adrenaline pulsed through him though, a cold vacuum opening up and pulling. In front of Nepeta, was a shape of a woman that was a reflection of the sky at night in all its glory.<br/>
The pain in the back of his head was crawling forward now, it was all he could to focus on what was supposed to be happening around him. Ms Megido suddenly was in front of him again. Did she step around their god? Through him? Pain crept in around the edges of his vision as he tried to take it all in. The celestial forms, too bright. His friends offering their hands to their mentors. Sollux followed suit, offering his hand to her again timidly.<br/>
A small blade was produced from Ms. Megidos robes, and the apprehension that rose within him brought back nausea rolling on his gut. He didn't realize he was still shaking until her voice pulled him out of his pain haze again.<br/>
"-lux? Sollux?" He looked up at her a bit dazed. Why did everything stop? So close, they were all so close to this being done. Then he could go lay down in a dark room until the pain went away.<br/>
"He's having one of his headaches..." that was Karkat's worried voice. Sollux turned to scold him, he was fine after all. What was it, an hour? Two hours ago when his god had soothed away his pain so gently? But being met with the eyes of not only his friends, not only their mentors, but also the physically painful brightness of four gods made his head spin.<br/>
"Aria, do you think he should..?" The voice of Karkat's dad sent a spike of anxiety through the apprehension.<br/>
"No!" Sollux was startled at his own voice, his free hand moving. It was on top of Ms. Megido's, it was pressing down. He felt the knife bite into his palm hard, more than simply the prick needed. His head spun as the blood began to swell.<br/>
There was a lot of loud fussing, lots of movement. Sollux couldn't tear his eyes away from the blood though, rolling down his palm to his wrist. Where did Ms. Megido's hands go? The knife? He felt himself sway, was this the migraine still?<br/>
"Sollux..." there was that voice. It swelled in his head and made his heart shudder. A warm, smooth hand captured his own, the other holding that same little blade. "Hold your hand here."<br/>
His warm hand left, the anchor that was keeping him grounded setting him adrift once more. Sollux swayed harder, trying really hard to keep his hand where he was asked.<br/>
The knife flashed, a small nick in that shattered glass hand. Sollux didn't know if it was his blurring vision or reality, but his God's blood shimmered and shone like the rainbow rings in oil. It oozed slowly.<br/>
His own hand was taken once more. He had forgotten he was bleeding already. The blood was dripping everywhere, his head spun. His god pressed his palm onto his.<br/>
The stinging throbbing pain in his hand subsided immediately, and Sollux would have sighed in relief if his head wasn't throbbing still. His god's free hand went to his other arm, steadying him. Sollux closed his eyes, only for Ms. Megido's soft voice and a warm, damp cloth on his skin to pull him back out of himself. He just wanted to get away from the pain.<br/>
"Sollux, open your eyes." He didn't want to, the room outside his eyelids seemed to have gotten brighter once more, but he complied. His god in front of him was bright, his body melting and shifting in front of them.<br/>
His hand was hot, molten glass in his, but he did not burn. He was a painfully bright, shining star, and he somehow wasn't simply dust in his wake. His god's body was made smaller, compressed down, Sollux wondered if he would explode. He had already seemed too big for the form he was in, how could survive in less? But he did not explode, his god dimmed to its normal brightness and he was small. Shorter than him. Sollux still felt unsteady but he dared look around and his friends and their gods were all the same, though slowly fading from his vision.<br/>
His hand was squeezed, he looked back to his god. He still stood solid in front of him. He had not let him go. Mr. Vantas was speaking again, but Sollux was too far gone to follow. Something heavy was placed around his neck.<br/>
Sollux didn't think he passed out, he came back to standing where he remembered last being, his god was no longer there. He was leaning heavily against Ms. Megido though, and Mr. Vantas was in front of them both as the adult spoke.<br/>
"The children are supposed to stay here tonight, it's supposed to be their first night away from home Aria."<br/>
"I know. But this has been very hard physically on him, much harder than on the others."<br/>
"It's not fair to the others,and it's not custom. Would the gods not be angry?"<br/>
"Do you think I would do something he would not approve of?" The conversation had been calm and soft until that point, but her voice turned sharp. Sollux tensed, she looked down at him, her free hand pressing against his forehead gently, her voice soft again,  "The children will understand. They are his friends. He should go home tonight."<br/>
There was a long pause, Sollux tried to mumble that<i> it's alright,</i> that he'll <i>stay.</i> But Ms. Megido shushed him gently. A stray memory of Aradia, sitting on the ground with a skinned knee as her mother shushed and comforted her flitted through his brain. He pressed into her side, closing his eyes again.<br/>
"Yes. Okay, fine." Mr. Vantas sounded worn through, and though he could not see him he could imagine him looking like Karkat then, brows knitted and hand at his temple. "Tell Cas he needs to be here at sunrise. Their first service is early, and Sollux has much to catch up on."<br/>
There was a hum of affirmation above him, and the gentle hands that held him close to her side moved to his shoulders. A gentle nudge and he turned, letting his new mentor lead him out.<br/>
Though the pain in his head was soft and foggy, Sollux was glad that the sun was low in the sky as Ms.Megido led him along the familiar road to his home. He was exhausted, all he did was recite dumb stuff and have a migraine all day and it felt like he had run a marathon. His limbs felt like jelly, his eyes struggled to stay open. Whatever was put around his neck felt heavy and ultimately if he was not being supported, he would not be moving at all.<br/>
The walk was slow and long as they made their way to the edge of the small village, where the fields his father's bees tended to were. The sun was nearly set, only a few rays peeking through the forest on the horizon, and Sollux could not be more glad to see home. Mituna rocked himself gently in the hammock hung on the front porch, stopping when he saw them and scrabbling up and inside the house yelling for their father.<br/>
He met them on the steps to the porch hitting his knees and pulling Sollux into his arms in one fluid motion. Sollux buried his face into his father's chest as his name was repeated over and over like a prayer.<br/>
"He will need to be at temple before sunrise. But Sollux needs you now." Ms. Megido's voice was soft and sad again, and Sollux peeked out to see her backlit against the porch.<br/>
"Thank you Aria, thank you." He struggled a moment as he adjusted Sollux in his grasp. He is 13 now, no longer easy to carry, but he pulled him up and onto his hip anyway through great effort and popping knees.<br/>
A step forward, Sollux feels his mentors hand press and linger on his back.<br/>
"Of course." Her hand disappears, he is taken inside, her footsteps receding into the evening.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Will rename chapter when i have a good name. Please enjoy.<br/>Reminder that this does not currently have a regular update schedule. I plan to remedy that after i finish my other fic, ISSD, but the current schedule has that finishing in about a months time still.<br/>Thank your patience and support.</p><p>You can find me at <a href="https://uncannycory.tumblr.com/">uncannycory</a> on tumblr<br/>Comments and criticism always welcome</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
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